1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to computer software and more particularly relates to software for evaluating a student's proficiency in certain skills.
2. Description of the Related Art
Current proficiency examinations systems are limited to specific applications at specific universities. Conventional examination systems include databases of questions that are asked in a linear or random fashion to a student. These conventional examination systems may be delivered to students on compact discs (CDs) or made available through a web application. The questions provided to the student during the examination are limited to a single administrator's problem sets. Thus, administrators at different educational institutions may be duplicating work of administrators at other educational institutions. Additionally, providing questions in a random or linear fashion to students may not provide the best evaluation of their proficiency in a subject area. For example, continuing to ask high difficulty questions to a student at a low skill level may consume unnecessary amounts of the student's time.
The referenced shortcomings are not intended to be exhaustive, but rather are among many that tend to impair the effectiveness of previously known techniques in proficiency examination; however, those mentioned here are sufficient to demonstrate that the methodologies appearing in the art have not been satisfactory and that a significant need exists for the techniques described and claimed in this disclosure.